Amcor launches podcast series to collaborate on industry’s big sustainability challenges
23 Oct 2018 --- Big ideas on how collaborative innovation is making consumer packaging and the products inside them more environmentally sustainable are the focus of a new original podcast series from Amcor. The twice-monthly “Big Ideas” series will feature interviews with thought leaders from global consumer-goods companies, sustainability organizations and Amcor itself. The first episode features Procter and Gamble’s Steve Sikra, who leads the company’s global material-science and technology program.
“Urgent global problems are best solved collaboratively,” says David Clark, Vice President of Sustainability at Amcor, a global leader in packaging. “The podcast is another way we are sharing the knowledge of global sustainability experts – from among Amcor customers, suppliers, colleagues and others – with the resolve to better protect the environment.”
Hosted by Clark, guests will describe sustainability challenges, real-world experiences and practical solutions to the world’s most pressing issues, including marine debris and food insecurity.
“We believe that Procter & Gamble will be successful by being sustainable,” comments P&G’s Sikra in the first installment of “Big Ideas.” “Our ‘Ambition 2030’ goals include a commitment that no P&G plastics will enter the ocean by 2030. To deliver on this goal, we must drive and deliver innovation and collaboration across the entire value chain.”
Future guests will include Patty Moore, President of Sustainable Materials Management for the State of California; Andrea Haas, from the not-for-profit Earthwatch Institute; and Dave Cornell of Eastman Chemical Company.
Each episode will be 10 minutes long. The conversations will be published in all major podcast stores under “Amcor Big Ideas” and available on the company website.
“Amcor’s global team is inspired by winning for the environment,” adds Clark. “To accelerate our progress, we partner with customers, suppliers, and leading nongovernmental organizations to develop packaging that is increasingly sustainable, and addresses issues from food waste to ocean pollution.”
Amcor is the only global packaging company that has pledged to develop all its packaging to be recyclable or reusable by 2025. The company also committed to significantly increasing its use of recycled materials, thereby driving greater recycling of packaging.
The recent launch of a unique polyolefin-based film that can be used for ambient and retort high-barrier applications has seen Amcor take a big step in its ambition to develop all packaging to be recyclable or reusable by 2025. Amcor claims the film will be an important building block in the development of flexible packaging which is recycling-ready across a huge range of products, from ready-meals to wet pet-food, coffee to nuts and snacks. Read about it here.
In August, Amcor and Bemis revealed a US$6.8 billion merger in one of the biggest packaging business stories of the year. Subject to the timing of shareholder meetings and regulatory approval, the transaction will be closed in the first quarter of the calendar year 2019. Read the PackagingInsights analysis here.
Edited by Joshua Poole
